Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Worship and Transformation

Tim Keller on the role of worship in transformation:

A Christian, if you looked into the Mirror of Erised [Desire] you would see yourself perfectly enjoying God and if you could have one perfect act of worship in which you perfectly valued Him, in which you perfectly enjoyed Him, if you completely enjoyed Him as He is, you'd be perfect. Nothing would get you down. Nothing would destroy you. You could face anything. But of course, all of our acts of worship are imperfect, and therefore bit by bit by bit, as we worship and as we get better and better at worship, we change where our heart looks. We reassign the ultimate value to the One that will satisfy us if we get Him and forgive us if we fail Him. If you're living for achievement and you fail that god, it'll never forgive you; you'll hate yourself forever. If the thing you are really looking for is love and romance or family, and somehow you fail that god, it will never forgive you; you'll hate yourself forever. This is the only God who's a shepherd. This is the only God — we're the people of His pasture, we're the flock of His hand. He's the one God who forgives you; He's the only God who died for you. So why do we need to worship God? Because we're going to worship something and anything else but the real God will distort our life.…Worship is the ultimate need of your heart. It's the ultimate need of your life.

Listen to the complete message here.


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